Adrian College women's hockey corrals Buffalo State

Sunday

Jan 12, 2014 at 12:30 PM

By Matt SisolerDaily Telegram Special Writer

The Adrian College women's hockey team took to the ice Saturday afternoon at Arrington Ice Arena to do battle with the Buffalo State College Bengals. The Bulldogs came in having shut out Buffalo State 6-0 Friday night, and duplicated the feat on Saturday, defeating the Bengals 3-0.

"We are happy with the outcome," said Adrian coach Chad Davis, "coming in off of playing our fifth game in eight days, and we are looking forward to getting back to the conference games."

Throughout the first few minutes, Adrian (12-3) controlled the play and possessed the puck for the majority of the time, setting the tone for the entire game, but Bengals goalie Jordan Lee held her ground.

Finally, with 7:46 elapsed in the period, Kelsey Kusch slipped behind the defenders in front of Lee, tipping in a perfect slap-pass from Danielle Smith to put Adrian ahead 1-0. It was Kusch's team-leading 17th goal of the season and would be her third game-winner of the season.

Adrian had its lone chance on the power play seven minutes later, as Bengal forward Kara Goodwin was sent to the penalty box for interference. Despite several strong chances against Lee, Buffalo State (0-13) was able to hold the Bulldogs out of the net and kill the penalty.

As time ticked away, the Bulldog attack ramped up trying to make it 2-0 going into the first intermission. It was nearly Kusch once again, as with six seconds left, Hannah McGowan found her unguarded in the low slot, and Kusch unloaded a one-timer that beat Lee blocker side but was denied by the far post. The Bulldogs had outshot the Bengals 18-1 in the first, but thanks to the efforts of Lee, they only led 1-0.

The Bulldogs came out flying in the second, but it was the Bengals who nearly scored on their best chance of the game. Nikki Kirchenberger took a great clearing pass and got into some open ice, but Bulldog goalie Brooke Gibson made a fantastic sprawling stop to keep Adrian in front.

The Bengals would find themselves on the power play, as Bulldog captain Lauren Turner went off for a roughing penalty, but Adrian nearly put one home early, as McGowan took a faceoff win deep in her zone and almost beat the Bengal defense down the left wing, only to be tripped up by a diving Buffalo State player, with no penalty called. Adrian only allowed two shots on net with Turner in the box and was able to kill the penalty.

Adrian would capitalize seconds after killing off the penalty, as it was Smith corralling a Kusch rebound, and despite having a Bengal defender draped on her, buried it to push the lead to 2-0 Bulldogs at the 11:13 mark.

Once again, as time wore down in the period, Adrian ramped its attack up. McGowan made a deke on a Bengal defender and lifted a backhand on net and found herself with the puck off the hard rebound. She spied Kusch on the far side, and slipped a pass to her for a one-timer, but Lee somehow managed to scramble across and rob Kusch from point-blank range.

The third period saw Adrian dominate the play for the most part, outshooting the Bengals 14-2 in the final frame, but Lee held the score close for the first half of the third. A nasty collision took place in front of the Bengals bench, as Smith and Kirchenberger ran into each other, with Smith losing her helmet and both having to come off the ice.

Shortly after the collision, Sydney Smith took a pass from Abby Kibler and teed a shot up from just inside the blue line. The puck seemed to change direction, possibly caroming off of a Bengal in front, beating Lee five-hole to end the scoring at 3-0 Adrian with 8:14 remaining in the game.

Bulldogs goaltender Brooke Gibson stopped all 10 shots to get her first shutout of the year, improving her record to 4-1-0. Lee stopped 50 of 53 shots from the sticks of the Bulldogs, seeing her record fall to 0-9-0 on the season.

Adrian will be in action again Friday for a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association battle against Concordia University at Arrington Ice Arena.